Red Sox Notes: Matsuzaka, Saito & Tazawa

by Patrick Newman (Feb 16, 2009)

The Red Sox have four Japanese pitchers
on their 40-man roster, and as such are getting their share of coverage
in the Japanese media.

Daisuke Matsuzaka has been training in advance of
the WBC with his former team, the newly re-uniformed Saitama Seibu
Lions. See if you can spot him in this YouTube footage. The catching drill around 5:55 is worth watching too.

Perhaps taking a cue from Ichiro, Matsuzaka also found his way to the batting cage. Matsuzaka took 28 swings off Seibu ace Hideaki Wakui, hitting 13 over the fence. A passing John Wasdin commented,
"it's Japan's Big Papi", probably with a tone of sarcasm that didn't
make the trip from English to Japanese and back. Matsuzaka did make at
least one pinch-hitting appearance in his Seibu days.

Junichi Tazawa is getting a quick start on his Boston career. He's been in camp for a couple days and is working out with Takashi Saito. Sanspo has pics of his first Red Sox bullpen session: 1, 2. He threw 62 pitches.